Reverence For The Body: An Ethical Principle Grounded in Human Experience

Jacek Mostwin, MD, DPhil, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Oxford English Dictionary defines reverence as “deep respect, veneration, or admiration for someone or something, especially a person or thing regarded as sacred or holy.” In this spirit Albert Schweitzer advanced an ethical principle of reverence for life. Reverence for the body centers Schweitzer’s principle more directly within the primary setting in which medical work takes place: the body. Much of medicine, such as bedside nursing, surgery, the care of wounds and the feeding and clothing of the disabled or infirm involves encounters with the body in a dimension beyond language. In these encounters, the profession expresses what it knows through action without speech. The “knowing” of the profession “is in the doing” as Donald Schon would argue, following Aristotle’s concept of excellence, by which “we are what we do.” In this paper I will argue that reverence for the body 1) may be considered a fundamental ethical principle that arises from encountering the body of others and that can be learned from experience and role models, 2) has a long history in Christianity, 3) can elevate the concept of the body from a purely material dimension to a transcendent one and 4) offers the potential for enhancing global discussion on universal bioethical principles irrespective of religion, law or language. Reverence for the body draws from Christian tradition: 1)the sacredness of the body expressed in the mystery of the Incarnation, the “word [made] flesh… [which] dwelt among us,” 2) the mystical presence of the consecrated Eucharist, and 3) the medieval culture of relics as safeguards against illnesses and as restorers of health during illness. But while reverence for the body is compatible with Christian tradition, it is not limited to it. Reverence for the Body is therefore also introduced for its potential towards contributing to a global bioethical discourse. While contemporary normative principles codified in western democracies arise from libertarian principles grounded in law and political philosophy, reverence for the body grows out of the primacy of the physical experiences of life: birth, the bonding of mother and child, the exuberant and painful ranges of embodied experience, and the lived body as it endures illness or approaches and passes into death. These experiences transcend the limits of legal language and draw ethical discourse back to the primacy of experience. In the care of the sick, that primacy is found in the dialogue, often non-verbal, between the professions and the lived body that is the focus of their work. The knowing expressed in this doing can be described, articulated and transmitted by educators. It can be developed as a principle expressing moral action towards another, drawing on religious tradition yet not limited to it, based firmly on the universal human experience of incarnation, spirit as flesh. Reverence for the body, grounded in human experience, transcending materialism, has the potential to engage a broad range of thoughtful persons, whether religious or secular, seeking a better world.